Getting started

Installing statime

We recommend installing statime through our precompiled binary packages, available on the release page. These can be installed through the standard methods for your linux installation, and will provide a binary, as well as a skeleton configuration and systemd unit for statime.

Configuring interfaces

Before we start statime, we first need to tell it which network interfaces we want it to use. For each network interface, add a section like

[[port]]
interface = "<interface_name>"
network-mode = "ipv4" # or "ipv6" or "ethernet"

to the configuration file in /etc/statime/statime.toml. This will tell statime to create a PTP port for that network interface.

Hardware timestamping

If the network interface supports hardware timestamping for a specific PTP hardware clock, this can be enabled by specifying the hardware clock of the network interface:

hardware-clock = <hardware clock number>

Statime will then enable hardware timestamping, and automatically synchronize the hardware clock and the system clock as needed. To determine which hardware clock belongs to an interface, ethtool can be used:

> ethtool -T <ifname>
Time stamping parameters for <ifname>:
Capabilities:
    hardware-transmit
    software-transmit
    hardware-receive
    software-receive
    software-system-clock
    hardware-raw-clock
PTP Hardware Clock: 0
Hardware Transmit Timestamp Modes:
    off
    on
Hardware Receive Filter Modes:
    none
    all

Here, the number after PTP Hardware Clock indicates which hardware clock device should be used. The 0 in this case means /dev/ptp0.

Starting the daemon

We can now start the statime daemon through systemd with

> systemctl start statime

If everything is configured well, and there is a PTP time source available in your network, the status of the daemon should look something like:

> systemctl status statime
● statime.service - Statime linux
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/statime.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
     Active: active (running) since Fri 2023-11-24 09:49:28 CET; 19s ago
       Docs: https://github.com/pendulum-project/statime
   Main PID: 13032 (statime)
      Tasks: 17 (limit: 38206)
     Memory: 2.2M
        CPU: 13ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/statime.service
             └─13032 /usr/bin/statime

nov 24 09:49:43 magnesium statime[13032]: [08:49:43.6224660.873413086][statime::filters::basic][INFO] Offset to master: 5.52605e4ns, corrected with phase change -1.3815125e4ns and freq change 1.7684712628529555e0ppm
nov 24 09:49:44 magnesium statime[13032]: [08:49:44.6225960.254669189][statime::port::state::slave][INFO] Measurement: Measurement { event_time: Time { inner: 1700815821622293016 }, offset: Some(Duration { inner: 39944.5 }), delay: None, raw_sync_offset: Some(Duration { inner: 111057 }), raw_delay_offset: None }
nov 24 09:49:44 magnesium statime[13032]: [08:49:44.6226181.983947754][statime::filters::basic][INFO] Offset to master: 3.99445e4ns, corrected with phase change -9.986125e3ns and freq change 3.751591897138696e-2ppm
nov 24 09:49:44 magnesium statime[13032]: [08:49:44.7314345.836639404][statime::port::state::slave][INFO] Measurement: Measurement { event_time: Time { inner: 1700815821730825550 }, offset: None, delay: Some(Duration { inner: 42616.5 }), raw_sync_offset: None, raw_delay_offset: Some(Duration { inner: 25824 }) }
nov 24 09:49:45 magnesium statime[13032]: [08:49:45.6227660.179138184][statime::port::state::slave][INFO] Measurement: Measurement { event_time: Time { inner: 1700815822622463004 }, offset: Some(Duration { inner: 60108.5 }), delay: None, raw_sync_offset: Some(Duration { inner: 102725 }), raw_delay_offset: None }
nov 24 09:49:45 magnesium statime[13032]: [08:49:45.6227915.287017822][statime::filters::basic][INFO] Offset to master: 6.01085e4ns, corrected with phase change -1.5027125e4ns and freq change -7.536402116092855e-1ppm
nov 24 09:49:46 magnesium statime[13032]: [08:49:46.1561985.0158691406][statime::port::state::slave][INFO] Measurement: Measurement { event_time: Time { inner: 1700815823155437065 }, offset: None, delay: Some(Duration { inner: 47689.5 }), raw_sync_offset: None, raw_delay_offset: Some(Duration { inner: 7346 }) }
nov 24 09:49:46 magnesium statime[13032]: [08:49:46.2030603.8856506348][statime::port::state::slave][INFO] Measurement: Measurement { event_time: Time { inner: 1700815823202129510 }, offset: None, delay: Some(Duration { inner: 47014.5 }), raw_sync_offset: None, raw_delay_offset: Some(Duration { inner: 8696 }) }
nov 24 09:49:46 magnesium statime[13032]: [08:49:46.6230144.500732422][statime::port::state::slave][INFO] Measurement: Measurement { event_time: Time { inner: 1700815823622633571 }, offset: Some(Duration { inner: 48557.5 }), delay: None, raw_sync_offset: Some(Duration { inner: 95572 }), raw_delay_offset: None }
nov 24 09:49:46 magnesium statime[13032]: [08:49:46.6230444.90814209][statime::filters::basic][INFO] Offset to master: 4.85575e4ns, corrected with phase change -1.2139375e4ns and freq change -8.688730125938628e-2ppm

Further steps

Further information on configuration options for statime can be found in the man page